Key Deal Facts
Canopy is creating the next generation of protective respirator masks for the world’s 59 million healthcare workers, and individuals seeking an alternative to disposable N95s. The company is well-positioned to capture a meaningful share of the market for N95s, which is expected to reach $5.7B by 2030.*
In October 2022, the Biden administration announced the National Biodefense Strategy & Implementation Plan, which highlighted the need to “invest in and incentivize innovations in PPE design, novel material development, advanced manufacturing, and reusable technology capabilities” for domestic PPE production & supply. With early traction and Canopy’s production capabilities already in place, the company views this as national-level evidence of future market opportunity.**
The Canopy team brings together leading angel investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, designers, clinicians, hospital administrators. Canopy’s founders were also recently accepted into the Fall 2021 cohort of StartX, the network for the top 10% of Stanford’s startups.
Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
Joe RosenbergFounder and PresidentFrom 2010-2018, Joe was a founding team member of Google Shopping Actions, the company’s expansion into verticalized search for retail. He focused on partnership development and management with the country’s largest retailers and fintech providers to implement shared omni-channel distribution strategies in an effort to mitigate Amazon’s market dominance. Joe has an uncanny ability to inspire and motivate partners, clients and team members alike with his cutting-edge ideas and approaches to business development implementing change at large institutions.
Joe has structured first-of-their-kind partnership deals between Google and organizations in both the retail and financial services industries, including negotiating agreements impacting more than $1B of Google e-commerce transaction volume.
Joe left Google in 2018 to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. He is the co-founder of Subject to Change Wine Company, a globally distributed natural winery based in California. He earned a BA with honors from the Gallatin School at NYU in 2010.
Kim RosenbergFounder and CEOPrior to Canopy, Kim led Apollo Global Management's $20B high growth Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business for its insurance unit, Athene. Kim had P&L accountability and oversight of all key functions.
During her tenure, Kim took the business to number one in the market, writing a record $5.5B of new business in 2020.
Kim structured and closed several landmark transactions, including with GE ($2B) and JCPenney ($3.2B). Kim also sat on the board of the women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) as a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion leader, and as a sponsor of underrepresented talent.
Prior to joining Athene, Kim was one of four founders of $1.2 trillion asset manager Legal and General Group’s US PRT business where she served as Head of Distribution since its 2015 market launch. Kim led sales, marketing, client solutions, business strategy and leadership development growing the business to nearly $4 billion in assets and 50 employees within five years. She previously served as Deputy Head of Distribution for Legal & General Investment Management America business where she worked with corporate pension and insurance clients to implement liability-driven investment and fixed income strategies. Her leadership contributed to nearly $50B of asset growth during her tenure.
Prior to Legal & General, Kim started her career at MBIA Asset Management. Her final role was as a Director where she led the development of pension de-risking strategies and insurance solutions for institutional clients. Prior she helped guide MBIA through the financial crisis, then pivot the business to a retirement solutions platform. Pre-financial crisis she led asset/liability risk management for a $30B bespoke lending business.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in public accounting and an honors degree from the Pforzheimer Honors College at Pace University where she graduated magna cum laude. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Marist College., QX YeeProduct development consultantA Singapore native, QX was awarded the prestigious Defense Science and Technology Scholarship in 2009by the Singapore government. After graduating with top honors in 2013 from Johns Hopkins University with a B.S in Biomedical Engineering and MSE in bioengineering Innovation and Design, QX returned to Singapore to work at DSO National Laboratories, Singapore's national defense research lab.
During his 6-year tenure at DSO, QX specialized in soldier performance, developing products such as the patented A-Lite backpack, which reduced soldier fatigue by properly distributing heavy loads. The backpack received the company's Innovation Award and is currently a standard issue for the Singapore Army. QX’s team drove DSO’s product development strategy. For his work in shaping the workflow and user interface for the Xentinel counter-drone vehicle, QX was awarded the KINETIC award, the company’s highest internal award. QX also lead the DSO ModSquad, an all-volunteer team providing solutions for the disabled and less fortunate. Under QX’sleadership, the Mod Squad designed and delivered a toy to teach music and rhythm to young children with cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders.
In addition to his role at Canopy, QX is the proprietorof Ascent Bikes, a high-performance bicycle company.
Lisa Brosseau, ScD, CIHIndustrial Hygiene ConsultantDr. Brosseau is among the world’s most cited scholar on Respiratory Protection. She is a consultant to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). Past clients have included 3M, Ontario Nurses Union, Manitoba Nurses Union, UAW, National Education Association, OSHA, Moldex, TSI, Inc., and the CDC.
Lisa is certified by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene and Associate Faculty of Occupational Hygiene in the British Occupational Hygiene Society with a focus on respiratory protection, aerosol measurement, filtration performance, and small business health and safety.
Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne, MD, MAClinical AdvisorDr. Clayborne attended Duke University as an undergraduate where she designed her own major in Medical Ethics and Religion. Prior to medical school she completed a two-year research fellowship at National Institutes of Health in the Social and Behavioral Research Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute with a research focus on race, ethnicity and genetics. Dr. Clayborne attended to medical school at Case Western Reserve University where she completed a dual MD/MA Bioethics degree in 4 years.
She went on to complete residency in Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital and served as Chief Resident in her fourth year. Dr. Clayborne is currently a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine with an academic focus on ethics, health policy, end of life care, health disparities and innovation/entrepreneurship. She developed a novel epistaxis device bleedfreeze.com as a resident and in 2015 was awarded the NSF I-Corps grant which helped to launch her company Emergency Medical Innovation, LLC. She is the former Chair of the MedChi Committee on Ethics and Judicial Affairs, serves on the Ethics Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians and is an active member of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association
Tom Gsell, PhDFiltration ConsultantOver a span of 36 years, Tom helped grow Pall Corporation into a lead innovator in the field of high-tech filtration. He held R&D leadership positions in increasing responsibility, and appointment to Senior Corporate Vice President in 1996.
Tom’s career led to senior level management responsibilities including global leadership of Materials R&D for both the Pall Industrial and Life Sciences (Medical) divisions. During his tenure Pall’s revenues and profits grew rapidly, fueled by new product innovation made in part possible by the teams under Tom’s purview.
Tom is named as a co-inventor on approximately hundreds granted and published US and International patents, as well as a number of peer reviewed scientific publications.
Dr. Narissa Joyner, MDClinical AdvisorDr. Joyner is an attending physician in Emergency Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She completed her training in emergency medicine at Morristown Medical Center Regional Trauma Center in Morristown, NJ. Upon board certification in emergency medicine, she began her independent career with Northwell Health. Dr. Joyner serves on the Board of Governors for Physician Partners at Northwell Health and is an active member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, the American Medical Association, the National Medical Association and the Medical Society of the State of New York- Young Physician Section. She is a clinical advisor to Canopy, having served on the front lines of the COVID-19 Pandemic at Lenox Hill Hospital for its duration. Dr. Joyner provides product development guidance and clinical feedback to Canopy, and has been instrumental in creating a clinical advisory group for Canopy’s product development.
David NarrowAdvisorDavid Narrow is co-founder and CEO of Sonavex Inc., a venture-backed commercial stage medical device company spun-out of Johns Hopkins University, which has raised over $14M. The company develops and commercializes ultrasound products for surgeons, including a technology for detecting post-operative vascular complications.
David previously worked with multinational medical device companies to commercialize their technologies and provide long-term business strategy as a healthcare consultant at Health Advances LLC. Narrow earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with Highest Distinction from the University of Rochester before receiving his Masters from Johns Hopkins University. He was named 30 Under 30 in Healthcare by Forbes in 2016, 40 Under 40 by the Baltimore Business Journal in 2017, and recognized as Baltimore’s Top BioHealth Startup CEO in 2019.
Governor Peter ShumlinAdvisorGovernor Peter Shumlin served three terms as the 81st governor of the state of Vermont. He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1990 to 1993, and served as State Senator for the Windham County from 1993 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2011, and he was elected president of the senate for 10 of those years. Shumlin served as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association during his first two terms.
During his time in office, Governor Shumlin established Vermont as a leader on progressive policies, making the state the first to guarantee universal pre-kindergarten education for all 3 and 4-year-old children, pass a mandatory GMO labeling law, and achieve near universal healthcare coverage with the lowest rate of uninsured in the country. Under his leadership, Vermont consistently ranked among the top states in solar energy jobs per capita and enacted a number of laws to boost renewable energy production and combat climate change. Because of Vermont’s leadership, Governor Shumlin was invited by President Obama to the Paris Climate Summit to push for a global climate agreement.
Governor Shumlin turned the nation’s eyes to the problem of opiate and heroin addiction by dedicating his entire 2014 State of the State Address to the issue and pushing for policies to treat addiction as the healthcare crisis that it is.
A committed entrepreneur, Shumlin is the longtime co-director of Putney Student Travel, National Geographic Student Expeditions, and Smithsonian Student Travel, sending high school age students on educational programs and service projects across the globe. He is a Director of The Scotts-MiracleGro Company, has served as a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and has taught at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health as the Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow.
Kwame UlmerRegulatory ConsultantMr. Ulmer led Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance for Danaher Corporation. Prior to that he spent 12 lears at the FDA, retiring as Deputy Director. He has reviewed over 1,000 new medical devices and technologies.
Kwame holds a Masters in Materials Engineering and a MBA from University of Virginia.
Dale PfreimRegulatory Consultant- President, ICS Laboratories
- Clients include 3M, MSA, GVS, US Army